Results in the Hong Kong Football Association Championship First Division in the past week saw no change to the leadership in the standings—Kitchee extended their lead by a point. Meanwhile, three teams – HKFC Albion, HKFC Wanderers and USRC—are now tied for first place in Division One of the Yau Yee League.
For the most part, the standings’ status quo extended across all four divisions in both leagues—there were only two leadership changes, with one being in the HKFA Second Division and the other in the aforementioned YYL tie.
HKFA Championship
In Saturday (Oct 19) action in the HKFA Championship First Division, Royal Southern came from behind to defeat Sunray Cave JC Sun Hei 2-1. Jean Kilama’s opener for Sun Hei was cancelled out by a first half strike from Jonathan Carril and a second half strike from Ip Cheung-long.
A dominant Citizen raced to a four goal lead before eventually beating Tuen Mun 4-1. Citizen’s goals came via a first half strike from Sham Kwok-keung and second half goals from Yuto Nakamura, Marko Krasic and Fernando Pedreira. A consolation goal for Tuen Mun came later from Guy Madjo.
Meanwhile, Kitchee defeated Yokohama FC (Hong Kong) 1-0 with the solitary goal coming from Christian Annan. This extended Kitchee’s lead at the head of the Championship, ahead of Sun Pegasus, prior to the latter’s game on Sunday (Oct 20).
In Sunday’s games, Happy Valley led in their game against South China through a goal from Chan Kwok-wai, before eventually falling to a 4-1 defeat. Goals from South China’s Lee Wai-lim, Lee hong-liu, Kwok Kin-pong and Manadou Barry sealed the deal.
Undefeated BC Rangers held the Sun Pegasus side—who brought a 100 per cent win record into the match—to a nil-all draw.
Eastern Salon prevailed in a 2-1 defeat of I-Sky Yuen Long. Leonardo’s reply in the second half, for I-Sky Yuen Long, pulled a goal back in answer to first half goals from Eastern Salons’s Manuel Filho and Giovane De Silva.
The weekend results now mean that Kitchee lead the First Division table with 13 points, two ahead of South China, with Sun Pegasus third on 10 points, but with a game in hand over Kitchee.
In the HKFA Second Division: the two teams that were leading the division with unbeaten records, Wong Tai Sin and Woo Foo Tai Po, fought out a nil-all draw; HKFC seized their chance and defeated Kwun Tong 4-0; Tai Chung defeated Double Flower 3-2; Wing Yee and Wanchai drew 1-all; and Shatin defeated Tuen Mun 3-1. Lucky Mile’s game against Kwai Tsing was postponed due to officials failing to show for the game.
The win to HKFC puts them one point ahead of last week’s joint leaders Wong Tai Sin and Woo Foo Tai Po, who are both on 11 points.
The Third Division saw Metro Gallery Sun Source and Sham Shui Po close the gap with leaders Yau Tsim Mong. Yau Tsim Mong lost their 100 per cent win record after recording a nil-all draw with Mutual allowing the top of the table to tighten. Metro Gallery Sun Source defeated New Fair Kuitan 5-3, and Sham Shui Po defeated On Good 1-0, to close the points differential to one and three respectively.
The Fourth Division is led by Ornament—who hold a 100 per cent win record—on 9 points, three ahead of GFC Friends and Sai Kung tied in second place.
Yau Yee League
In a mid-week Division One Yau Yee League game, at Sports Road, HKFC Albion and USRC drew 2-all in a game with plenty of endeavour, goalmouth action, chances and goalkeeping saves. A brace was scored by Albion’s Richard Maton.
Albion followed this up with a solid 4-nil defeat in an end-to-end encounter against French Kiss on the weekend.
Tony Hamilton opened the scoring in the 19th minute with a neat side-foot finish to give Albion the lead. Three minutes later Sebastien Fiedler broke through in a clever move and managed to see his shot rebound off both left and right posts before smashing the rebound into the net. In the 38th minute, Hamilton saw his clipped left-foot shot hit the bar before crossing for a goal kick. This left Albion two goals ahead going into the half time period. Six minutes into the second half, Albion increased their advantage with a third goal from Marc Huff. And again, six minutes later Masayuki Sakai sealed the win with the fourth goal from the penalty spot.
Meanwhile, in a reduced round of matches due to pitch availability: USRC were prevented from taking over as leaders of the division when they were held to a 3-all draw by a determined Swiss XI outfit; and KCC Dragons overcame Antonhill 3-0. HKFC Wanderers, the previous weeks’ outright leaders, had a bye along with five others in the divsion.
These results see HKFC Albion as Division One leaders, tied with HKFC Wanderers and USRC all on 11 points—however, Albion have played one more game than the other two. KCC Dragons are a point behind in fourth, while GAS and Swiss XI are a further point behind in joint fifth.
In Division Two of the YYL: The Store House Hearts defeated ANP 2-1 to hold on to their three point lead at the top of the table; Mobsters defeated CSOB by the same score to hold second place.
In Division Three, HKU70’s maintained their 100 per cent win record with a 4-nil defeat of Goal Visio. In the Division Four, IES maintained top spot with a 5-1 win over Hung Art.
